


He's Gone. Time to Move On.

by TheOnlyOrigamiDinosaurLeft



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, Jack's missing, The team are a team, Torchwood's side of things, Year That Never Was
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 17:39:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7115782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOnlyOrigamiDinosaurLeft/pseuds/TheOnlyOrigamiDinosaurLeft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most days, the team barely noticed. That first month or so they were absolutely wrecked, a field officer down and it wasn’t like Ianto was ready to go in yet. They muddled through, obtaining a large vary of injuries, scrapes, fractured bones, black eyes and one alien flu that had them all off their feet for 3 days. After a month the 4 of them sat round the conference table, Ianto’s arm still in a loose sling and Gwen’s black eye as present as another person in the room. She stood at the head of the table.,<br/>"We have to sort ourselves out guys. We cannot go on like this."</p>
            </blockquote>





	He's Gone. Time to Move On.

Most days, the team barely noticed. That first month or so they were absolutely wrecked, a field officer down and it wasn’t like Ianto was ready to go in yet. They muddled through, obtaining a large vary of injuries, scrapes, fractured bones, black eyes and one alien flu that had them all off their feet for 3 days. After a month the 4 of them sat round the conference table, Ianto’s arm still in a loose sling and Gwen’s black eye as present as another person. She stood at the head of the table.

“We have to sort ourselves out guys. We cannot go on like this.”

There were no objections, no snarky comments from Owen or eye rolls from Ianto. They all knew that they were working at a pace no one could keep up.

“We need a leader, just someone we can look to.” Gwen looked at Owen, expecting him to sit up and take his place. He was second in command and she wasn’t about to undermine that. But to her surprise Owen didn’t sit up, he just looked at her.

“I’ll be honest Gwen, and savour this moment ‘cus you won’t hear me say anything like it ever again… you’re the best lass for the job. You’ve got leadership and we all trust your judgement. My vote is with Gwen, Ianto?”

Ianto looked up from his lap and offered a shadow of a smile, his arm still healing from the weevil that had been thrown into his side.

“Oh god yeah, please God don’t let Owen be my Boss.”

His smile brightened up as bit as Owen thrust his middle finger up, the older man’s eyes betraying his true amusement. They all looked to Tosh, who was sitting on her chair and shipping coffee quietly. She seemed to realise she was being watched and looked up from the liquid.

“Oh. Yeah of course Gwen… I thought that was Implied…”

They all chuckled a little bit and Gwen straightened up at the front.

“Okay, thank you guys, but Owen,” Owen looked at Gwen. “Im putting you in charge of Field operations, you have more experience than me and are a far better judge of situations.” Owen nodded and smiled. Gwen then looked to Ianto, his broken arm and his bruised pride. “Ianto, when your arm is better you are going to start daily training with Owen. Fire arms, hand to hand combat and everything in-between. I need you to be ready to field action. Congrats, you’ve been promoted.”

Ianto chucked and looked pleased with himself. Owen shook his head with a small smile.

After that it was like everything slotted into place. Gwen took over day to day running of the Hub and of Torchwood, and between her and Ianto they were able to convince UNIT that there was nothing wrong and that they defiantly didn’t need to call an expectation. Owen took over field operations, coordinating and planning the attack or format they would take. Tosh was working hard as ever, forming new hub defences and finalising her rift predictor program so that they could all find time to relax a little come the end of the week. Ianto and Owen began training together, and quickly Ianto found his place on the team, saving their arses more than once on many occasions. Even Owen admitted he was becoming quite the Torchwood agent.

4 months after Jack left the 4 of them found themselves with4 days of a predicted lull in rift activity and had all agreed that a long weekend was in order. Gwen and Owen agreed to stay on call as they had both had weekends off in the last month, with Ianto and Tosh on full holiday unless the world began ending. On the first night of their freedom they all went to the Black Horse for a pint to celebrate their first small pocket of rest.

“First rounds on me.” Ianto claimed as he walked to the bar, putting in an order for 2 pints, a white wine and a vodka-coke. Returning to the table a few minutes later he found his friends deep in conversation.

“Anywhere in time and space – where’d you go? Thanks Ianto.” Owen said, taking his pint and addressing the three of them.

“Anywhere?” Ianto asked.

“Anywhere you want.”

Tosh thought hard, sipping her wine.

“Somewhere with far ahead technology. I want to be able to mess around with some circuits, maybe bring some stuff back to Torchwood to work on.” Owen nodded.

“Gwen?”

“Somewhere warm I guess, friendly aliens, nothing that’s going to want to kill me. Beautiful views, mountaintops… you know the sort.”

Owen laughed and leaned back.

“Jones?”

“You first Owen.”

Owen sat forward, looking straight at Ianto.

“Lots of girls, lots of guys, lots of good times. And maybe a working spaceship.”

Ianto laughed and sat back in seat, taking a large gulp of his drink and wiping the rest from his lips.

“So?”

“It’s a tough one… But probably a mix of everything you’ve said. Far ahead tech with a beautiful sunset and someone to watch it with. And a spaceship.”

They fell into a silence before Owen got up and got the next round. After 4 more they were all feeling decidedly tipsy. They had had a lot of good chats, but after a short silence Tosh said quietly.

“Where’d you think Jack is?”

It was the first time they’d said his name in weeks, the first time anyone really had acknowledged that he was even gone. The 4 of them had been so set on trying to move on without the help of their boss that they had somehow pushed him away from torchwood, almost forgetting he had ever been there. Owen shrugged.

“I dunno, travelling around. Doing whatever the fuck he wants. It’s Jack you know…”

They did know. More silence.

“Do you think that he’s thinking of us?”

Ianto sipped his drink, avoiding eye contact with any of them. Gwen reached out for Tosh’s hand.

“I think he’s gone home. Where ever home is to him… I think he’d been waiting for that Doctor guy so long just so he can go home….”

They all looked at her and understood what she meant. He wasn’t coming back, he had gone home, away from Cardiff. And it was time to move on. The next day Tosh stopped her scan for the signal of Jack’s wrist strap, Ianto opened up Jack’s office and dusted the surfaces, Owen changed Jack’s file title to ‘inactive’ and Gwen finally told UNIT that Jack was MIA, and that he was unlikely to return.

After their long weekend the dynamic had changed between them all, and they knew they were going to get through this. Together.

 


End file.
